Your ignorance is astounding. Or perhaps you just need to get laid.

The first-cause argument doesn't work, as thus I will ask who or what created your "God."

Meanwhile...

Every developed country is in a situation where, if their population grows at all, it's only because of immigration. The points about consumption are valid, but bringing down the birthrates everywhere is still completely necessary.

I don't like the tone of the letter-writers either, but do any of the conservatives on here really not know how conservatives pioneered this kind of thing? They still lead the way! Look at their vitriol, some of it repeated here, regarding Obama, who, in any other industrialized country, would be seen as right-of-center. Stop referring to the "Left," also. We do have several different Socialist and Communist parties in this country, as well as a Left-Anarchist movement, and none of them resemble the Democrats.

So, Salon-readers: don't take the bait. I know Paglia makes you angry, but don't respond the way the rednecks do towards people they don't like. They subsequently write letters here saying things like "see how intolerant The Left is?"

Regarding Palin: Shouldn't her Creationism render her beyond the pale, before any of her other positions (such as they are?) People are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts, and pointing this out is not intolerance or anything worse.

1. The religious types who oppose abortion believe in a "heaven," which is perfect and eternal.

2. They believe that the "souls" of aborted fetuses go to this "heaven."

3. Actions during one's lifetime can jeopardize one's afterlife destination.

So what's their objection to a guaranteed, and quick, trip to perfection in perpetuity?

1. The religious types who oppose abortion believe in a "heaven," which is perfect and eternal.

2. They believe that the "souls" of aborted fetuses go to this "heaven."

3. Actions during one's lifetime can jeopardize one's afterlife destination.

So what's their objection to a guaranteed, and quick, trip to perfection in perpetuity?

In 2000, Californians banned gay marriage with 61% of the vote. That law was found unconstitutional, but then the referendum (Prop 8) passed in 2008 with 52% of the vote. That was only after a multi-million dollar campaign, often featuring outright lies, funded by the magical-underpants Mormons.

Next time, gay marriage will pass in California. Follow the numbers and the demographics.

When I first saw the poster for this movie, I hoped it was some kind of documentary about JCVD. I'm glad all of his bizarre aphorisms are now back on Wikiquote:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Van_Damme

"If you work with a jackhammer during an earthquake, stop, otherwise you are working for nothing."

They get better. Check the link. You will probably laugh out loud.

The title of the article is an attention-grabber. The article itself is not really about emigration. Many people here don't seem to notice this, on all sides.

To the Obama haters: Brace yourselves, this might make your heads explode... He is not a leftist. He does not oppose American imperialism. His presidency will mean more predatory capitalism and endless war. He, and the rest of the establishment Democrats, are far to the right of any objective political center. They'd certainly be on the right in any Scandinavian country.

Scandinavia is so often held up as a model because it reflects what people somewhere on the Left want: health and safety, fairness, peace, and basically all of the things this article mentions. That leads to a question I have for all the haters on this message board: Do you know the objective facts about the Scandinavian countries? Do you understand that the US falls behind in so many desirable categories?

If I desire conditions like that, I shouldn't have to run away to find them. I want the whole world to be *something* like Scandinavia. Why would you not like this? Why does it scare and offend you?

It often seems to me that much of the Middle East is something like a US-Conservative dreamland. Women are repressed, religion is pushed down everybody's throats, deviance from social norms is brutally punished, dissent is treason, science is repressed, all actual labor is done by exploited immigrants, venal, corrupt elite families hold and keep all the wealth, et cetera.

So, here's your choice: Sweden/Norway/Finland/Denmark/Iceland versus Saudi Arabia/Kuwait/Iran/Oman/UAE/. This, incidentally, is the reason why the reddest states are also the most backward. Alabama's own governor mentioned a few years ago that his state ranked last in everything good and first in everything bad. Do you ever wonder why?